e-bulletin 19
September 2006

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Celebrating Theatre
at our Annual Open House

Saturday, September 30 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
5030 St-Denis Street in Montréal (Laurier Metro)

For the tenth consecutive year, the National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) has teamed up with the province-wide Journées de la culture to present its annual Open House, a boisterous celebration of theatre in all its forms. For this special 10th anniversary edition the NTS has pulled out all the stops, inviting visitors both young and old to a free theatrical carnival consisting of over 30 different activities for the whole family. Our students, teachers, alumni and staff welcome the public with open arms in order to demystify the institution that has to date trained close to 1,500 actors, set and costume designers, authors and playwrights, directors and other theatre artists who have played an integral role in the development of theatre in Canada.

Transmitting a passion for theatre

Theatre-lovers are in for a real treat as the NTS also presents a labyrinth of head-turning activities that will give you a rare glimpse into life at Canada’s foremost theatrical training institution. From spontaneous eruptions of song throughout the halls, a Jeu demonstration led by SaBooge Theatre company member Attila Clemann, voice classes by teacher Julia Lenardon, to the concentrated movements of Tedi Tafel’s Mind and Body classes, the public will be able to witness the School’s Acting students in action as they hone their skills. Acting students will also be taking part in Jeu and live improv with this year’s Directing graduate Arianna Bardesono from Italy, who will be manipulating light and sound for inspiration.

Painter François Vincent will lead a public drawing class where the public will be invited to stand in as a living model, and renowned wigmaker Rachel Tremblay will be displaying some of her most (in)famous wigs on site. Set and Costume Design students will showcase their work through the presentation of their always unique designs on live mannequins and in black box maquettes while also painting a large mural inspired by characters from Brecht’s Threepenny Opera.

Playwriting students will be serving up some “fast food style” plays for the public, while it’ll be maquette madness with professor Chris Brown and the Technical Production students. All this and much, much more!

Discover the artistic leaders
of tomorrow, today

On the occasion of this year’s Open House, the NTS will be raising the curtain on the results of its new Cultural and Artistic Leadership Program (CALP), a fund that was established last year in order to assist the creative endeavours of current students and recent graduates. Of the 28 projects that have so far received funding totalling $95,800, about a dozen of them will be showcased at the Open House. The public will get a chance to meet these young artists who aspire to make socially relevant art that affects their communities. There will be presentations of new work, projections, installations, puppet workshops, costume exhibitions and public rehearsals.

This is a unique opportunity to discover the social preoccupations of these emerging artistic leaders and to witness their creative approaches. The CALP exists thanks to a donation from the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. It was created to encourage and partially fund the original and innovative initiatives of current students and recent graduates who demonstrate artistic excellence and a desire to make a social impact through theatre.

Please read the project descriptions below to have a better idea of what will be shown…

In the Beginning...
At 11 a.m. in the Pauline McGibbon Studio

Brandon Coffey, Greg Gale, Natasha Greenblatt and Christine Khalifah (all 3rd year Acting student) will hold an open rehearsal of exerpts of In the Beginning…, punctuated by discussions with the public.

In the Beginning: A Short Piece about Life and Death is the story of a young woman’s journey after the loss of a loved one. The piece examines the lack of a contemporary common language surrounding the most universal subject — Death, through dance, shadow play, storytelling, live music, electro-acoustic soundscapes, and the sharing of food.

The process demanded the sharing of personal experiences and cultural practices as well as the exploration of ancient and present day myths. In the Beginning... was performed at the NTS during the Montreal Fringe Festival in June 2006.

The Man with the Wolf in His Belly
At noon and at 1 p.m. in the projection room
Created by The Maboroshi Orchestra

Stuart Wiber, a 2005 Acting graduate, will show a DVD presentation of The Man with the Wolf in His Belly, written by German Saravanja (2005 Playwriting graduate), comment on the production and demonstrate the workings of his puppets.

A totally original puppet show inspired by the Javanese Wayang kulit and berber storytelling, as well as shadow puppetry world wide, The Man with the Wolf in His Belly tells the story of a man’s journey across Northern Canada. Created for the family, it is a universal story of an Everyman following his dreams which lead him to reconnect with nature and freedom.

The Man with the Wolf in His Belly played in 5 Toronto-area parks throughout the month of August 2006.

You Like It
At 1 p.m. in the Pauline McGibbon Studio

Collective creation by: Darrah Teitel (3rd year Playwriting student), Jonathan Seinen, Susanna Fournier (both 3rd year Acting students), Vincent Chevalier (Acting 2005 graduate), and Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman (2nd year Playwriting student). The artists will present a reading of You Like It.

You Like It is a collective creation kidnapping the characters and transformations of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Presented in the summer of 2006 at both the Montreal Fringe Festival and Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival, the piece targets social issues surrounding coming out, virginity and gender identity – it is a meditation on the concepts of identity, intolerance and ideology.

Rosaline
At 1:30 p.m. in the André-Pagé Studio
Written and directed by Alyssa Hudson with choreography by Indrit Kasapi (both 2006 Acting graduates)

Adam Burgess (2nd year in Acting student), Indrit Kasapi, Julia Rigaux & Jacqueline Russell will present Rosaline in its entirety.

This story begins where Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet ends. Roseline is about empowerment; it explores the core nature of conflict between women as it weaves a tale of love, rejection, grief and reconciliation. Performed at the Edmonton Fringe in August 2006, the Edmonton Journal had this to say: “There are moments of great beauty and care in Rosaline. Rosaline and Juliet, when they come to an understanding, dance wonderfully together”.

Nor the Cavaliers
who Come with Us
From 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Pauline McGibbon Studio
Created by One Reed Theatre

Evan Webber, Megan Flynn (both NTS Acting 2005) and director Daniel Mroz, will present a film of their performance Nor The Cavaliers Who Come With Us with the film's director, Marie-Louise Gariépy, followed by a talk back with the artists about their company training and their creation methods.

Since their first workshop performance in August 2005, One Reed has performed the Cavaliers in Montreal (NTS), Toronto, Ottawa, and at the Catskill Festival of Experimental Theatre in upstate New York. This August, at Toronto’s 2006 SummerWorks Festival, the Festival jury gave it the Spotlight Award for outstanding achievement by an individual or a company and NOW magazine cited their production in the Outstanding Production, Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Ensemble categories.

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National Theatre School of Canada
5030 Saint Denis Street
Montréal, Québec H2L 3P5
Tel.: (514) 842-7954
Fax.: (514) 842-5661
info@ent-nts.qc.ca